Raster data such as bitmap data may have been conventionally segmented into raster data pieces each having a rectangular shape (of 32 pixels×32 pixels, for example) suitable for image processing such as rotation processing. The rectangular shape (tile) raster data piece is also called tile data.
PTL 1 discloses the following processing. (1) A renderer generates raster data of a band having a height equal to the height (such as 32 pixels) of a tile from image data (print data) of a single page described in page description language (PDL); and (2) A tile segmenting unit segments the generated band raster data to tile data pieces suitable for image processing such as rotation processing. In other words, this technology segments raster data of a band having a height equal to the height of tiles generated by one renderer is segmented into a plurality of tile data pieces by one tile segmenting unit.
PTL 1, however, does not consider use of a plurality of renderers for higher speed of the raster data generation processing (rendering processing).
Parallel generation of raster data pieces of bands each having a height higher than a tile height by a plurality of renderers may require a memory for storing the generated raster data pieces of a plurality of bands until the tile segmentation ends. In other words, raster data of one band having a height equal to a tile height to be segmented into a plurality of tile data pieces contain raster data generated by one renderer but do not contain raster data generated by another renderer.